News

Letters to the Editor: Riddle of the Elgin marbles

YOUR articles, Public shows huge support for return of Elgin marbles and Oi, hands off our marbles! (News, January 11 and News Review, last week), raised some controversial points. The British Museum’s claim to legal ownership of the marbles “because it paid for them in the 19th century” is incorrect. The marbles were purchased in 1816 by the government of the day, with £35,000 of public money, and vested in the British Museum.

The claim that the British Museum “has never had a formal written request for the marbles’ return” may well be true — but British governments over the years have certainly had formal requests from Greece.

The position is quite clear. The British Museum, by statute, does not have the authority to return the marbles. But they were purchased under an act of parliament, and any government has the power to alter the conditions of any act of parliament